Technology Transfer Acceleration Companies announce the creation of the SATT Association to carry out joint initiatives aimed at increasing their efficiency, visibility, and transparency. In just two years, 2,300 projects have been identified and analyzed, and €48 million invested.
Paris, May 19, 2014 – The creation of the SATT Association brings new momentum to the pooling of resources that SATTs have been engaged in for over two years in a committee of the C.U.R.I.E. network, which brings together stakeholders involved in promoting French public research and in which SATTs are fully engaged.
It will enable SATTs to pool their resources and actions even further and to communicate jointly in order to promote the system constituted by all SATTs, raise awareness and recognition of their profession, their role and their added value in French competitiveness, and thus have them recognized as key players in technology transfer in France.
The 12 SATTs already created have been given exclusive rights to promote and transfer the research results of 145 French public research institutions, whether shareholders or affiliated. Each researcher now has a reference SATT within this group. "Thanks to the determination of our shareholders, we are a unique example of simplification in the transfer landscape in France: we have concentrated in 12 SATTs skills that were previously scattered across 67 university commercialization departments. We have become the sole point of contact for the transfer of intellectual property and know-how from the laboratories of these 145 research institutions to companies," says Olivier FRENEAUX, president of the SATT association.
Not all SATTs are at the same stage of development, as the first ones have been in existence for more than two years, while the latest ones have only just been created. Nevertheless, as of April 30, 2014, these 12 SATTs together had a workforce of more than 350 people specializing in intellectual property, technology project engineering, law, marketing, and business development. They had identified and analyzed approximately 2,300 commercialization projects, filed 372 priority patents on behalf of their shareholders, invested €48 million in intellectual property and maturation projects, signed 86 technology licensing agreements with companies, and contributed to the creation of 22 start-ups. The indicators are positive and the SATT model has proven its effectiveness. The association will be a vehicle for continuing the work of raising awareness and explaining the role of SATTs.
By creating this association, the SATTs also want to amplify the sharing of best practices initiated within the C.U.R.I.E. network, pool portfolios of technologies to be transferred, pool tools, participate collectively in trade shows and business conventions, contribute in a coordinated manner to the life of national and European organizations and networks for commercialization, and clearly display shared values in order to develop collective visibility and legibility. The first initiatives taken in this direction have already demonstrated their added value (cost reduction, improved visibility).
Find the press release by clicking here.
Download the article from Les Echos dated May 19, 2014
Download the AEF article dated May 19, 2014